and his party begin to inquire after the proof of Mr. Hodge's cruelties and murders; and then, and not before, were the first depositions taken on the subject. It deserves also to be noticed that this unhappy man con tinued to be the Honourable Arthur Hodge, member of his Majesty's Council for the Virgin Islands, till after his committal, when he was suspended from his seat in council by Governor Elliott. We have already mentioned, that the jury took two hours to consider of their verdict, and when it was at length returned guilty, it was accompanied by a recommendation of the prisoner to mercy by a majority of the jurors. To this recommendation, Governor Elliott, with a becoming firmness, refused to pay any attention. Such, however, was the state of irritation produced by the novel and unprecedented circumstance of a white man condemned to death on account of the murder of his own slave, and such the dread of an attempt on the part of the white population for his rescue, that Governor Elliott, who had judged it prudent to proceed to Tortola in person, that he might be at hand to watch the course of events, felt himself under the necessity of proclaiming martial law, calling out the colonial militia, and availing himself of the aid of a frigate, in order to awe the turbulent into submission. In consequence of these measures, the threatened disturbance was prevented, and the sentence of the law was regularly executed. The Governor observes, in his dispatch, "The state of irritation, and I may almost say of anarchy, in which have found this colony (Tortola), rendered the above measures indispensible for the preservation of tranquillity, and for ensuring the due execution of the fatal sentence of Hodge to justice for some gross acts of oppression towards a free person of colour, was frustrated in his humane attempt chiefly by the instrumentality of this very assistant judge. See also the letter of Mr. Musgrave, in the printed papers. the law against the late Arthur Hodge. Indeed, it is but two probable, that, without my presence here as commander-in-chief, in a conjuncture so replete with party animosity, unpleasant occurrences might have ensued." The reply of Lord Liverpool to these communications, is so highly honourable to him and to his Majesty's government, that we deem it right to give it entire. It is dated the 20th June, 1811. "I received your several dispatches from No. 34 to No. 41 in clusive, and however deep the indignation which your former letters, in reference to the case of Mr. Huggins, have excited, and however strong my apprehension that the law, as at present administered, is inadequate to the prevention of similar excesses, I could still little have expected the additional detail of cruelties that is therein conveyed. "The individual by whom they were perpetrated, has suffered the severest and most ignominions punishment the law can inflict; and it only now remains for me to express an earnest hope, that this rare example of just retribution may effect that change in the treatment of the unfortunate slaves, which it should require no other motives to produce than the common feeling of humanity towards a fellow-creature, or even the common regard to public decency. "I am commanded, by his Royal Highness the Prince Regent, to convey to you the high satisfaction he ha derived from your anxious endeavours, on this occasion, to secure impartial justice on the trial, and the solemn execution of the sentence; and his full approbation of your conduct, in not permitting the intercession of the individuals, who partly composed the jury by which Mr. Hodge was tried, to suspend the termination of that iniquitous career which he had but too long been suffered to pursue. "You are authorised to make every reasonable compensation to those individuals who may have, been inconvenienced by personal attendance on the part of the prosecu tion. "I bave received the further come mand of his Royal Highness the Prince Regent, to desire that you will take an opportunity of publicly assuring the Council and Assembly of the Virgin Islands, that his Royal Highness has had the greatest plea sure in witnessing their anxiety to co-operate with you in the cause of humanity and justice and you will acquaint them, on the part of his Royal Highness, that his Royal Highness cannot receive from them a more flattering assurance of their regard to the wishes of their sovereign, and of the interests they feel in supporting the honour of the British name, than their anxious endeayours to ameliorate the condition of that class of beings whose bitter and dependant lot entitles them to every protection and support." Taking then a review of this boasted proof of West India humapity and justice, as it has come to us through the only authentic channel, will it not be admitted by every impartial reader, that our views of the subject, instead of being weakened, are, in truth, greatly strengthened by it? The statement, taken in all its parts, goes directly to establish the necessity of those measures of parlia mentary inquiry which we have ventured to recommend as the only remedy which, in existing circumstances, is at all likely to be efficacious, But we must now quit this part of the subject with a single observation. Many of our readers may have been surprised to perceive, by the reports of the parliamentary debates, as given in the newspapers of the day, with what promptness the friends of the abolition united to resist the attempt which was made to give what are called British laws to the island of Trinidad. Unhappily, in the West Indies, as we have shewn, British laws mean neither more nor less than the communication of a power to the white inhabitants to oppress, at their pleasure, the slaves and the free people of colour. It was thought much better, therefore, with a view to the happiness of these classes of the population, which outnumber the whites in the proporton of about fifteen or twenty to one, that the Crown should retain, in its own hands, the sole and exclusive right of legislation; and that until a constitution should be framed, which might extend protection to all classes of his Majesty's subjects, the iron despotism of our other West Indian colonies, should not be al ́lowed to displace, in this island, the humane and considerate provisions of the Spanish slave code. The Report before us contains an additional proof of the cruel injustice of West Indian law, as now administered. We allude to the memorial of a free negro man, of the island of St. Vincent, named John Wise, addressed to the President and Directors of the African Institution, and inserted in the Appendix, p. 87. This man, in 1797, had been sold by the executor of his deceased master. 1o one Claude Alexander, a free mulatto of St. Vincent, who employed him as a mariner on board a sloop, called the Revenge. This sloop, in a voyage to one of the other islands, was, in October 1801, taken by a Spanish privateer, and carried to Cumano, where being condemned in a Spanish court of admiralty, the ship and cargo with the slave-seamen on board, and among the rest this John Wise, were sold at public auction. Wise was purchased by an Ameri can, who carried him to St. Croix, and there sold him to a Dr. Gordon of that island, in whose service he continued until January 1807, when Dr. Gordon died at Bath in England, whither Wise had accompanied him. Dr. Gordon, in consideration of his faithful services, manumitted him, and settled upon bim, by his last will, twenty pounds a-year for life. After the death of Dr. Gordon, Wise continued for some time in England; but in July 1810, he em barked as a steward on board the Theresa of Bristol, bound to Trinidad, at the wages of four pounds fifteen shillings per month. On the 18th day of November, the The resa touched at St. Vincent's on her homeward voyage, and on the 19th Wise was seized and brought on shore by the warrant of a justice of peace; and being claimed by Alexander as his runaway slave, was, without any hearing, or the permission of explanation, first committed to gaol as a runaway, and afterwards, in defiance of all justice, delivered up in bondage to Alexander. A gentleman, whose name deserves, with Mr. Tobin's, to be held up to the gratitude of all good men, Hugh Perry Keane, Esq. formerly of Lincoln's Inn, being made acquainted with the case of Wise, did immediately and gratuitously take it up; and having applied in vain, both to Alexander, and to the justice of peace for his release, sued out a writ of Habeas Corpus, before William Taylor, Esq. the chief justice of the island. Mr. Keane stated before the judge, the various circumstances which had divested Alexander of all further right to Wise as his slave; and supported his statement by affidavits of respectable persons in the Island, who were acquainted with the main facts of the case; and particularly with his capture and subsequent condemnation and sale at Cumana, whereby Alexander had become legally dispossessed of all property in him; and also with his transfer at St. Croix to Dr. Gordon, and his residence at Bath with that gentleman, by whom he had been manumitted. But all this evidence proved unavailing, and the chief justice ordered Wise to be delivered up to Alexander as his slave. An exception was taken to this decision by Mr. Keane, which was to be heard in the month of May 1811; and in the mean time, Alexander entered into a recognizance to produce Wise, before the court, on that occasion. Wise, however, foreseeing the probable effect of all attempts to redress his wrongs in St. Vincent's, and being informed that he had no remedy by appeal to any tribunal in Great Britain, has applied to the Directors of the African Institution to interfere in his behalf, which they of course will be most anxious to do. Now, is it possible to conceive a case of greater injustice than this, solemnly and deliberately sanctioned by the highest legal authority in the island of St. Vincent? Is not such mal-administration as this a fit subject of parliamentary inquiry? No man, under similar circumstances, would have attempted, even in a West Indian court, to reclaim a ship, or a bale of goods, or, in short, any commodity whatever, excepting a negro slave. Here is a man, who, having been torn from all his connections, and consigned, by the rights of war, to a new master, and having in that master's service earned his freedom by his good conduct, is iniquitously made to forfeit that freedom, merely by returning to a colony enjoying, forsooth, a British constitution and British laws. It is one most disgraceful peculiarity of the slave law of the British colonies in general-a peculiarity which, we believe, distinguishes it from every other slave code on earth-that it presumes every black or mulatto person a slave, till the contrary is strictly and technically proved; and this without providing, for a free man of colour, the means of legally asserting his freedom when it is invaded, however able he may be to prove it. He can of course bring no action while held in custody by a person claiming to be his master; and if a voluntary protector interfere, no other remedy can be found than the writ of Habeas Corpus, the proceedings on which are ill adapted to try a disputed question of fact. By the same monstrous code, the greatest length of possession gives no right of freedom, nor any protection against its invasion.There is, indeed, no positive law in any island which establishes these ini quitous rules, nor any principle which can make them legal in colonies, where, by express constitutional enactment, as we have already observed, as well as by the maxims of common law, the code of the mother country, in force at the time of their settlement, ought to subsist till altered by acts, either of Parliament, or of the interior legislatures. But West India courts and West India juries will adhere to their own notional law of slavery, as long as they are under no other controul than that of their own petty and illiberal legislatures.-To such a length are these abominable practices carried in the West Indies, that a negro or mulatto, though in the possession of freedom, and claimed by nobody as a slave, is liable to be seized and sold on account of the public; unless either an owner appears and establishes a right of property in him, or his freedom can be legally proved, within twelve months after his apprehension. So that, as has lately happened, a man of colour, born in England of free parents, and who of course can have no document of manumission to exhibit, may be seized, on going to the West Indies, by the first person he meets, and committed to gaol as a runaway slave. He will, in that case, be advertised for twelve months in the newspaper of the island ; and, if not claimed in that time, will then be sold by auction to the best bidder. This very case appears to have lately occurred; and thus has a free born Englishman been recently and cruelly enslaved in an English island, boasting an English constitution and English laws. But is such a state of things to be endured? It is impossible. In a former part of this Review, we have stated, that all slaves unlawfully imported into the West Indies, are by act of Parliament declared to be ipso facto free. But the case of John Wise proves how nugatory are such enactments. West Indians will import and retain slaves in the teeth of a thousand such acts, until some means are taken by Parlia ment to make their decisions respected by the insular courts. Will every wretched African, who may be imported contrary to the abolition acts, find a Hugh Perry Keane to advocate his cause? And if he should, we have seen how unavailing the exertions even of this generous and enlightened friend of humanity have proved, when the sphere of their operation has been a West Indian court of judicature. We do not feel that any apology is necessary for having occupied so much of the time of our readers with these details.-They are, indeed, harrowing to the feelings; but it is necessary that the real nature of our colonial institutions should be understood by the public. It is only a small part of the case, however, which our limits will allow us to place before them. In order to a full exposure, much more lengthened details and discussions than we can now venture upon will be necessary. Our object has been merely to excite attention to the subject. We have done, however, for the present, with the West Indies, and in the sequel of this Review, we will endeavour to confine ourselves within very narrow limits. The attention of the Directors of the African Institution, during the past year, has been much turned towards the suppression of the foreign as well as the British slave trade. This object has been greatly forwarded by some late decisions in the courts of prize in this country. In the case of the Amedie, an American slave ship, the principle was laid down in the Privy Council Appeal Court, by Sir William Grant, that the Slave Trade having been abolished by this country, on the ground of its inherent impolicy and injustice, it must now be considered, abstractedly speaking, as having no legitimate existence. He thus pursues the argument. "When I say abstractedly speaking, I mean that this country has no right to controul any foreign legislature that may think fit to dissent from this doctrine, and to permit to its own subjects the prosecution of a right to this trade; but we have now affirm that prima facie the trade is illegal, and thus to throw on claimants the burthen of proof, that in respect of them, by the authority of their own laws, it is otherwise. As the case now stands, we think we are entitled to say, that a claimant can have no right, upon principles of universal law, to claim the restitution, in a Prize Court, of human beings carried as his slaves. He must shew some right that has been violated by the capture, some property of which he has been dispossessed, and to which he ought to be restored. In this case, the laws of the claimant's country allow of no right of property such as he claims. There can, therefore, be no right to restitution. The con sequence is, that the judgment must be affirmed." This principle was afterwards adopted by Sir William Scott, in the case of the Fortuna, an American ship, under a Portugueze disguise, destined for the slave trade; and it was thus extended by this eminent civilian, not merely to vessels which had actually engaged in the pur. chase and transport of slaves, but to those respecting which it might be proved that there was an intention so to employ them. "It matters ; not," observed this able and elo, quent judge," in what stage of the employment," (viz. the slave trade), whether in the inception, or the prosecution, or the consummation of it, the vessel is taken; the court must pronounce a sentence of condemnation." The principles on which these decisions proceed, are equally applicable to the ships of any other nation, whose laws do not sanction the slave trade, as to those of America. At present, there fore, the only nations who can carry it on are Spain and Portugal. The Spanish flag has, indeed, been extensively used of late by British and American subjects in protecting their illicit traffic; but the disguise has been detected in a variety of instances, and the ships condemned. Spain also has shewn a disposition, if we may judge from the discussions in the cortez, to abolish the trade entirely; and the revolution, ary junta of the Caraccas have already abolished it. Portugal has agreed, by express stipulation, to abandon all her commerce in slaves, which is not carried on directly from Portugueze ports in Africa to her settlements in America, in ships bona fide Portugueze. By this treaty, the whole of the African coast, north of the equator, is de livered from the Portugueze slave trade, with the exception of the small island of Bissao, at the mouth of the Rio Grande, the cession of which to this country is on that account greatly to be desired. The Spanish government, we are persuaded, would be more inclined to abolish for ever this inhuman traffic, if they could be made to understand how greatly its continu ance is likely to endanger the safety of their colonial possessions, especially as in the present circumstances of Spain it would be impossible for them to send any succours abroad in case of an insurrection. But besides this, the Spanish nation has itself in truth little or no interest in upholding this trade. What appears to be Spanish capital embarked in it, is really either American or British, which the Spanish flag is merely prostituted to protect from seizure. This view of the case is illustrated by the fois lowing occurrence. "Two ships under Spanish colours, the Gallicia and Palafox, were met by his Ma jesty's frigate the Amelia, commanded by the Hon. Captain Irby, on their voyage from a port in Spanish America, to the coast of Africa, for slaves. Captain Irby, seeing reason to suspect that the adventure was really on British account, detained the vessels, and brought them into Plymouth. There, on the usual preparatory, examinations having been instituted, the master, mate, and supercargo all swore so positively and unequivocally, that the ships and their cargoes were Spanish property, that the Judge of the Admiralty felt himself obliged, notwithstanding some very suspicious circumstances, to decree their liberation, on bai! |